Lesson Four

Limitations, Ethics and Dilemmas

Welcome
everybody to the last lesson of Occlumency class. As you might have gleaned
from the syllabus, this is where we will talk about limitations, ethics,
dilemma and other interesting bits that touch upon the subject of Occlumency.

Fools
who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their
emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked this
easily - weak people, in other words - they stand no chance against his powers!
He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!

In this quote by
Severus Snape, we can already see the main limitation of Occlumency, emotional transparency. This is why
Harry Potter was not good at Occlumency. Rowling said that Harry's emotions
were always near the surface, but that he was also always very in touch with
what happened to him, and with his feelings. Because he is so honest about his feelings,
he would never have been able to properly suppress them, which is what is
needed to perform a successful Occlumency. Draco Malfoy on the other hand, is
incredibly capable of compartmentalizing his life and his emotions, which makes
him a successful Occlumens, something we see later in the series.

The biggest
ethical concern or dilemma when dealing with Occlumency is breach ofprivacy. Though Occlumency is a defense against the mind from
external penetration, also known as Legilimency, you need to be subjected to Legilimency
to know how to use it, which brings forth the question of privacy. How ethical
is it to breach someone's right to privacy in order for them to be able to
defend against it? There are no regulations around it, but then again, the
wizarding world is pretty lax around laws and privacy in general. The only time
we hear about privacy being directly protected under law is in regard to
Imperius Curse, which is strictly forbidden. Even there, it is more about the
person's autonomy and integrity of the body rather than privacy of the mind.

Privacy is hard
to define, because its boundaries and content of what is considered private
differs amongst cultures and individuals within those cultures, but privacy of
thought is considered a basic right in almost all, if not all, of them. The
right to not be subjected to unsanctioned invasion of privacy by governments,
corporations or individuals is a part of many country's privacy laws and
constitutions. Some of the examples are United States Constitution, which while
does not explicitly state the right to privacy, implicitly grants it under
4th Amendment, and Article 8 of European Convention on Human Rights. Interestingly
enough, United Kingdom, where most of Harry Potter universe takes place, does
not have a freestanding right to privacy in its common law. Instead, others
torts are used, such as breach of confidence and intention of harm being some
of them. It seems that Muggles and Wizards are the same when it concerns
privacy laws.

As mentioned before, privacy is hard to
define. However, all of those different definitions can be secured as one of
the eight concepts of privacy, which are as follows:

the right to be let alone;

the option to limit the access
others have to one's personal information;

secrecy, the option to conceal
any information from others;

control over others' use of
information about oneself;

states of privacy;

personhood and autonomy;

self-identity and personal
growth;

protection of intimate
relationships.

We mentioned the
Imperius Curse, which falls under breach of personhood and autonomy, but what about
invasion of one's mind? It can be either breach of secrecy, since our
concealment of personal information, even if in the mind, was affected. Or, we
can say that with the use of Legilimency, we were unable to limit the access of
the Legilimens to our personal information, though one might argue that
thoughts are not our personal information.

Where does that
leave us with privacy in regard to using Legilimency to learn Occlumency? Well,
in many countries privacy can be voluntarily sacrificed, usually in order to
get benefits, such as winning a prize by offering your personal details. If the
gatherer of information is more transparent when it comes to telling how the
information will be used, people are more inclined to sacrifice. Same
principles can be adopted for teaching of Occlumency. However, we must realize
that the sacrifice applies to private information about the person, rather than
the privacy of someone's mind. Here, the willingness of people to sacrifice their privacy might be a bit different. Sadly, it seems that the wizarding world still has a long way
ahead when it comes to privacy of its inhabitants.

For the end, let
us touch on something more positive. Besides being able to defend yourself
against a Legilimens, what else is Occlumency good for? Going by Severus Snape's
words to Harry Potter in the first Occlumency lesson, Occlumency uses the same
principles as resistance to the Imperius
Curse, namely, mental discipline and willpower. So, it is entirely possible
that someone who is adept at Occlumency can throw off the effects of Imperius
Curse. Same goes for Veritaserum.
The potion works on the unsuspecting, the vulnerable and those insufficiently
skilled to protect themselves against it as per Rowling. Since Veritaserum compels
you to tell the truth, one could argue it is similar to a compulsion of
Imperius, it is entirely possible that an accomplished Occlumens can
successfully resist its effects.